


Fields of Light

by imperfectkreis



Series: Amanda [2]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 01:12:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3338507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfectkreis/pseuds/imperfectkreis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's Kill Caesar! That's about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fields of Light

Veronica insists she wears armor, but it feels too heavy on her bones and Six ends up leaving it behind. The scowl on Veronica’s lips is almost too much to bear but she kisses her just at the corners of her mouth and promises it will be okay. Between her breasts is a switchblade and at her hip a stealth-boy. Six has thought about this for a long time. It’ll go alright.

The Mark is leaden around her neck and she feels like she’s gotta puke just from feeling it pressed against her skin. It’s the sort of thing she’d normally fidget with, but she can’t bring herself to touch it. She can’t hold Veronica’s hand on the boat either. They keep inches between them. Six reads out loud to herself from the Pip-boy screen. She’s getting better at making the sounds fit the letters. 

Even though Six won’t wear armor, Veronica does. At the gate they take Veronica’s laser pistol, her power fist, and Six’s rifle. She’s got a .22 in her boot but they don’t get a whiff of that. Of course not. Seems like Caesar's spies have been sloppy. They know her Tribe, they should know her, what she stands for, they should be more careful. 

She watches the path ahead. The sounds of boy-children playing are sharp and horrific in her ears. Miming the horrors of war, excited for it, knowing nothing else but knowing nothing at all. If it were her choice, she’d kill them first. It would be the merciful thing to do.

In front of Caesar's tent their escort tells them Veronica must stay outside. The invitation is for Courier Six. More than anything she wants to kiss Veronica right there, warm and comforting and whole, because she might not be any of those things after this. But she can’t so she nods her head and wrings her hands as if she’s nervous. She’s not. She’s excited.

Caesar's dog shows her in, opening the flap of the tent and ushering her inside. He puts his hand on the small of her back and says he’s happy she came. Right then Six nearly loses it and considers slashing his throat first. But she holds. 

Her reflexes must be perfect. Her aim must be too. Caesar opens his mouth to lie and lie and lie. About the glory she’ll bring to the Legion. About how she may participate in the salvation of this world. But she knows because there were men like his dog at her mama's throat. Men like his dog stole the babies and made them into the little boys outside. Men like his dog broke what men they could and slaughtered the rest. Took her Tribe into slavery. And she should have been there. Maybe she couldn’t stay in the Village, but it was her duty to Watch. Now she will do penance. She will do right by her people.

All along as he speaks she inches closer, mimes being drawn in by his words. She’s certain she could end up right in his lap and he wouldn’t notice. Old man would probably take it as a compliment. Instead she flicks open the switchblade and slashes hard against his throat. His last words are unintelligible but they bubble up over her hand as a thick, bloody mess. 

They’ll want to kill her. It wouldn’t have been her preference to strike in the closed confines of the tent, such a claustrophobic space where she can be seen, open, vulnerable. 

Because she looks such a sweet, little thing with her hair in braids and her soft, unarmored body, the chaos she induces is wholly unanticipated. Caesar's men do not react at first. His blood is literally on her hands. His mouth is still moving, but it is too late. They don’t have the skill to save him.

“You whore.” It’s not an exclamation, or even really furious. Whoever said it is still somewhere between dumb astonishment and action. 

She can feel the air move around her. They are coming. They mean to kill her. But she is faster, hitting the stealth-boy and shimmering out of sight. Breathing even, she side steps and in their blind rage they cannot find her. 

Before she leaves, she pulls the .22 from her boot. Holds it inches from the dog’s face, and shoots him between the eyes. It is enough commotion that the remaining men know her position. But they do not know it long enough, and she is gone.

Slipping from the tent she finds Veronica already on top the lone guard outside. She smashes his face in with bare fists until it is nothing but pulp.

“We need to go! Now, now now!” Six hisses. It was never her intention to fight them all like this. Not without her rifle and a good bit of distance. 

She grabs hold of Veronica’s wrist just as the scribe activates her stealth-boy. As the Legion try to make sense of what has just happened, Six pulls them between tents and around corners. There’s no going out the way they came in and it’s a mad rush for the walls. She scrambles on top of one of the low, flat-topped tents and Veronica is on her heels. They’ve got to jump, and they’ve only got one chance and not enough of a run-up. But Six takes that chance, because it’s all she’s got. She vaults over the wall and starts rolling down the hill, towards the banks of the Colorado. 

By the time she hits the water, the stealth-boy is out of juice and they’ve still got a river to cross. Veronica is still a field of shimmers moving in the light, but one breathing so heavy and so sweet Six wouldn’t lose track of her. 

“We gotta swim.” 

Veronica exists stealth just then and the look on her face is horrified.

“Oh,” Six realizes, “Oh no, you don’t know how?”

Veronica throws her hands up, “Not much reason to learn when you live underground.”

“It’s okay, you’ll learn, fast, really fast.” Six bites her lip because it does seem impossible now. Veronica looks scared out of her mind and she’s never seen her like that. Not scared of the Legion, but worried by a body of water. She’s gotta think of something. “Hey, Veronica. My name, my real name, is Amanda. The Village elders thought I would only be good for making babies, tending crops, and scaring off wild animals. But I just cut Caesar’s throat open in front of a tent full of his strongest men. If I can do that, you can swim.”

“Si--Amanda, I’m not sure that’s how skill works.”

“Just try, we can do this.”

Veronica nods and they jump into the Colorado. They’ll be back. And next time, they’ll walk out the same way they came in.


End file.
